Tag: folk-consciousness

We live in a time when the neoliberal order of the past few decades is beginning to disintegrate, signalling the final collapse of what was Western civilization, probably within the next decade (if not within a few years). The combination of crony capitalism along with ‘social democracy’ (socialism within a neoliberal framework) has become exhausted because the central banks that sustain it have hoovered up the world’s capital in order to maintain their power through this false dichotomy. The resulting strain felt by the average human has pushed many of us (particularly in the younger generations) towards more radical ideas about how to replace the current order with something more desirable.

The spectres of the past (particularly those that led to Word War II) have appeared in the voices of the Millenial generation in the forms of both Neo-Marxism, commonly referred to as ‘social justice’ (which is based on the plight of perceived ‘oppressed minorities’ in racial, sexual and economic categories) and what is known as the ‘Alt Right’, which is a combination of various nationalist and traditionalist ideologues acting as an effective opposition to the Modern Left. There also exists a more Centrist aspect, consisting of ‘libertarians’ and ‘sceptics’ who claim to oppose both movements as extreme and primarily advocate individual liberty, and may also favour civic rather than racial nationalism. These divisions reflect deep fissures within our civilization and are a sign of its fall, which I believe to have occurred between the 1960s and the 1990s. Now, new ideologies are competing for dominance, and there are various factions involved on all sides that I will not discuss in detail here. For now, we shall focus on the ‘Alt-Right’ in particular, its relationship to racial nationalism and how this is connected to, but also distinct from Folkish Tribalism.

First of all, one thing that unites the two movements is the resurgence of the ‘folk soul’ of the White race, which has occurred as a result of multiculturalism and the realization among certain Whites that their civilization, and in fact, their very existence as a subspecies, is under threat. The fact that we appear to be the only race of people that should feel ashamed of our heritage for the abuses of imperialism and colonialism has awakened many to the hypocrisy that all races have engaged in such behaviour, yet the others are seen as victims of White oppression in the eyes of the Modern Left. This even extends to the general liberal consciousness, which maintains that all races are equal and so to make distinctions between them is absurd and leads to racism.

A feeling of not being able to express ourselves as a distinct group without either having to apologize for past grievances or denying our own heritage has permeated the consciousness of the White man in particular, and is taken either as an inevitable or even desirable situation, or one that needs to be challenged and changed. Thus, this impulse expresses itself in the various socio-political ideologies that compose the Alt-Right and others that signify the resurgence of folk consciousness. The rise of the internet in particular has led to the awareness of these issues and made it easier to consume and create content relating to these topics, and to engage in contact with others who have reached the same conclusions. For many of us, this is an exciting time to be alive, as we are fuelled by feelings of destiny and purpose that have come to fill the void left by our decadent and worthless consumer society.

However, in many ways this is where the similarities end, and we can now critically examine the relationship between these movements, and how we can not only work together for the sake of our people’s future, but also to avoid the drastic mistakes of the past that led us to the mess that is the post-World War II West. The main distinction between the Alt-Right and Folkish Tribalism is that the former is political in nature, while the latter is not. The Alt-Right relies on the dissemination of information relating to socio-political issues and raising awareness of topics such as biological differences between races and the incompatibility of other cultures with our own, particularly those of the Middle East and Africa.

This is achieved through spreading ‘memes’ used to highlight or provide humorous commentary on a particular issue, or through various alternative news outlets in the form of podcasts, blogs and YouTube channels. Folkish Tribalism, on the other hand, is primarily spiritual in nature, and is more concerned with the revival of our native traditions and providing the tools necessary to build a future for our folk through musical, literary and environmentalist expressions. This is twain with paganism and the reverence for our ancestors in the form of the gods and heroes of our native lore, as well as the spirits of Nature and a reverence for Mother Earth. Though both movements spring from the same source of discontentment with post-Modern society and an urge to reconnect with our folk-soul, the means of achieving this are quite different and their focus is oriented in different directions.

On one hand, the Alt-Right focuses on biological and cultural differences between races, and acts as a reactionary force against the forces of globalism and multiculturalism. On the other, Folkish Tribalism is geared towards asserting our people’s existence in its own right, and is less concerned with what people of other races do as long as it does not interfere with our own well-being. In this way, both forces act as pillars of our emerging civilization, one defending our people against false accusations and abuse directed towards us for perceived transgressions, while the other provides a focus for how to build and sustain a society based on tradition and natural law. However, one thing which must be kept in mind is that the relationship between the two must be one of varying levels of importance, with maintaining our folk in a cultural and spiritual sense being the priority and the political and social dimensions remaining secondary.

The danger that now presents itself in the wake of the ascendancy of the Alt-Right is that the political and material aspects will take priority, and subsequently drive both movements into the ground and destroy our race’s chance of survival. This is precisely what happened during World War II, particularly in Germany and to a lesser extent in Italy. The völkisch movement that included the appearance of Wotanism as a modern religion and the revival of Teutonic culture was eclipsed by the rise of the Third Reich, which placed its own importance above that of the German folk once the National Socialists gained power and subsequently interned various ‘occultists’ in concentration camps. In doing this, it doomed itself by removing the spiritual core of what had propelled National Socialism into power in the first place.

It is this point in particular which I wish to emphasize; which is that it is not the political or even racial expressions that are the most important in our struggle, but the spiritual foundation on which such movements are built. It is here that I also wish to make a distinction between the two ideologies of White Nationalism and Folkish Tribalism. Since the Alt-Right is a development from the earlier subculture of White Nationalism, it is essential that we disconnect the two concepts. I want to emphasize that attaching a political ideology to the Alt-Right is counterproductive, as the concept of White Nationalism is neither desirable nor possible. The concept is flawed in two ways, one of which is the idea of returning the current White nations to their previously homogeneous states. The problem with this idea is that it proposes to work within the framework of the already existing society in order to advance the interests of our folk, which would imply mimicking the state as it exists today.

The matrix that binds together the nations of our world through the mechanisms of the ‘deep state’, which is collusion between the banks, the media and the state to maintain the current trajectory, is designed to facilitate entropy and the destruction of our culture by removing that aspect which is central to maintaining a healthy, functioning society; which is the spiritual essence of our folk and the guiding hand of tradition. In this way, any attempt to design a society that is in any way similar to the present one will end in disaster, as it is the presence of an external authority based on mere ideals that causes decay.

The other issue is the question of race, and how this should be reflected in one’s conduct towards not only members of one’s own race, but also towards others. Essentially, the principal problem with a White Nationalist view of race is that it is based strictly in biological terms, where the mere membership of the White race is enough to guarantee one’s interests as far as establishing an ‘ethno-state’ is concerned. Let me be clear in saying that I have no interest in maintaining the White race as it exists today, most of whom are deluded and sheepish creatures who may not even be aware of the importance of blood and soil in the divine order of the universe. I would rather be involved in the creation of a new, invigorated Aryan race, which is able to sustain itself both on a spiritual and material level.

This takes us to the distinction that must be made between the concepts of ‘race’ and ‘folk’, which is that one is material and biological and the other is spiritual. This is not to say that race is not important in building a new society, as it would only be possible to build a tribe with other members of one’s own race (or else, such a project would devolve into a group based merely on ideology rather than blood kinship, which is essentially what globalism strives to implement worldwide). However, there must also be a shared concept of what is important and that the divine order is more important than both the individual and the collective, thus excluding members of one’s own race that think otherwise. Such connections based on intuition and shared belief can transcend nationality and ethnicity, and there should be a willingness to let go of some of our more particular regional identities in order to maintain the folk as a whole.

Then there is also the issue of the ‘folk’ and ‘tribe’, which is that all members of one’s tribe are part of the folk, but that all of the folk cannot be part of one’s tribe. The tribe is merely the people that you know personally and are a part of one’s daily life, being those who are worked with directly. The folk may consist of people in another land that you do not know, but who are with us in spirit and the recognition of a shared goal. Another issue with White Nationalism in this regard is the focus on identity politics, which begins from the collective and ends with the individual. In this sense, since the primary focus is on the preservation of the White race, this acts as the central focus and everything else comes after. This is a backwards way of going about restoring our people’s dignity, as the first point of reference is the individual. The individual must assess his or her personal nature, their skills and purpose within the tribe and work to becoming a fully functioning component that is indispensable to the tribe, unlike the interchangeable ‘individual’ of Modern society, whose worth is measured quantitatively and is replaceable.

From there, the next point of departure is to the individual’s own family, then to the tribe and the folk. As each collective grouping becomes more abstract and removed from the individual, the more importance is placed on the spirit of the folk as a whole and only then we can speak of ‘nations’ and ‘races’. The future Aryan race must reach a point between the spiritual and biological aspects based on a shared genetic lineage, but also on shared ideals and values. A society must have both of these in order to survive and thrive, as an example of one that had the former but lacked the latter would be the nations of Western Europe, while the opposite would apply to somewhere like the United States.

Both of these societies within Western civilization as a whole have succumbed to the same problems of multiculturalism and consumerism, which arise from the loss of tradition and the recognition of the folk as an organic entity. The idea of building a society from the ground up and the urge to form tribes to preserve our ancient customs is what drives Folkish Tribalism, not the desire to return to some glorious past where you could be assured that your nation consisted of others like you in a genetic or cultural way. This is not to say that the role played by the Alt-Right is not important, in fact it is what represents the things we advocate within the political realm and can introduce those curious about their own heritage to other sources of information regarding how to go about reclaiming it.

Its main advantage lies in its sense of humour, as opposed to the dour and overly sensitive Left, which is unable to laugh at itself and is in a weaker position as a result. However, when one takes these ideas too seriously, it can lead to delusions about the rise of the ‘Fourth Reich’ and even revelling in all of the atrocities that would entail. In this sense, building a future for our children and exiting multicultural society should take priority over the political arena, which consists of posturing and all of the most base characteristics of man’s animal nature. It is also because one cannot simply shy away from politics that I choose to address these issues, as this would imply a denial of what needs to be done in order to reach those who enter the fight from the political end first before moving on towards more practical and worthwhile pursuits.

Despite the bickering and disagreement between individuals online, I am still confident that we are winning the culture war and have a solid basis from which to direct our future endeavours. Such base behaviour is to be expected among those who feel drawn towards the call of their blood but still cling to petty political ideology and racial identity as the core of their personal opinions. There is a much more significant number of us who are finding that we all have particular talents that we are capable of utilizing to advance our people’s interests. This may even take the form of completely apolitical activity, such as promoting awareness about our history, folk customs and musical traditions which are specific to each geographical region of our lands, but which speak to all of us on a fundamental level.

The most important thing to remember is that the political aspect comes last, and that it is essential to have an anchoring in one’s own personal purpose before focusing on the collective effort. This is certainly important, but only if we have energy to spare after our personal relationships and tribal and familial bonds are secured. It is what we do rather than what we think that unites us in camaraderie, and there will indeed be many who may share the same opinions as us, but will not have the will or the courage to go beyond that. Such people are as irrelevant to our cause as those who will perish along with our sick, rotten society because they still cling to ideals deriving from the 18th or 19th Centuries (liberalism and Marxism respectively). The future looks bright, but only if we know in which direction to go and the most effective way to get there.

The word ‘myth’ is commonly understood to mean something that is untrue, false or otherwise not supported by evidence. This meaning is itself untrue, as myths are neither, strictly speaking, true in a literal sense, but neither are they false, as they are meant to convey a deeper truth. A ‘myth’ is simply a story, and can be interpreted to convey truth or to spread falsehood. What is usually labelled as a ‘myth’ today is not a story with a variety of meanings, but rather a lie which has no basis in fact. For example, the myth of Scotland’s landscape being formed by the actions of a primordial woman known as the ‘Cailleach’. It would be absurd to think that a giant woman existed and shaped the land by doing things like letting a well in a mountain overflow to form a loch, but since the Cailleach is a personification of Mother Nature herself, this helps us to interpret the myth in a way that we can understand.

This is because the events described in myths have taken place so long ago that none now live who remember them, and so it is necessary to describe the events in a way that is easier to remember rather than completely accurate. The problem with the modern use of the word ‘myth’ is that it assumes the inherent falsehood of stories like this because they cannot be true in a literal sense, and so discredits the entire story altogether. This is a narrow way to perceive reality, as it means that only that which is material or tangible can be considered true, while deeper meanings and multiple perspectives are neither considered nor questioned.

Mythology is highly dependent on factors such as culture and environment. The features of a particular country’s landscape give myths observable meaning to the people that inhabit it, which is why the forests and mountains of Northern Europe are said to be home to elves, trolls and fairies, beings which are specific to the traditions of these lands. The mythological creatures that are said to inhabit the jungles of South-East Asia are of a similar nature but different form, because their appearance and behaviours are rooted in the folk-consciousness of the people that inhabit that part of the world, as well as the local environment. This also means that different mythologies reflect different values depending on culture. The aristocratic and pastoral ethics of the Ancient Persian epic, the ‘Shahnameh’ (‘Book of Kings’), where the main characters are noble cavalrymen who play polo, hunt lions and fight in great battles for their king, would find little resonance with the hunter-gatherers of Prehistoric Finland, whose mythology is primarily concerned with creation and supernatural tales of heroes journeying to the underworld.

The peoples of the world tell stories about heroes and gods that they admire and aspire to, as they represent the best people to survive in their own environment and embody the potential excellence of their own folk. Our ancestors would look to their lore in times of hardship to give them strength and wisdom. The story of Robert the Bruce, who was inspired to continue pursuing his ambitions by a spider who never gave up when tying to build a web, even after successive failures, serves as a moral to encourage us to learn from our mistakes and push ourselves to reach for success. Now, this story is probably not literally true (apparently the spider was actually seen by one of his kinsmen who told the king-in-exile, in order to encourage him) and is technically more of a legend, since it is based on a historical event. This matters not, its purpose is not simply to inform us about the past, but to apply what our ancestors have learned in our current and future endeavours.

However, a people’s mythology can be obscured or obstructed through competing forms of media, namely modern mass media and academia. These institutions do not exist for the sake of the survival of a race of people, but rather for their own survival as institutions and the international system that they support. Greek and sometimes Egyptian mythology may be taught to school pupils who learn about history or, if they’re lucky, Classics; but Nordic or Celtic mythology is only at best taught at university level and available for enthusiastic readers, but at worse is portrayed in heavily watered down and maladapted forms in Hollywood films and TV series. The effect of mass media is that it creates its own mythology in place of that belonging to a particular race, and serves only to promote ideas that reflect the values of the establishment rather than the folk that consume it. This is also the case with organized religions, who have a universalist approach to mythology which manifests as dogma, which is interpreted as literal truth by their most fundamentalist adherents. This is why only among the most honest academics, and hardly ever among mainstream Abrahamic clergy, is it admitted that their own teachings are simply variations on Judaic mythology (which is itself a mishmash of Babylonian, Egyptian and Canaanite mythology). Since the events of the Old and New Testaments are not generally presented to us as ‘mythology’, this means that the word ‘myth’ as applied to other traditions gains the connotations of ‘false belief’; which is why, to many today, it sadly retains this meaning.

One size does not fit all in this world, there are many ways to determine truth and it is important that this is what we look for when we interpret stories. Myths that are interpreted incorrectly or purposely misused to control or abuse a population should not receive the support of the masses, as the acceptance of lies only creates an impregnable castle in the clouds for those who gain power by fleecing ordinary folk. While it is is interesting to study the comparative mythologies of nations around the world (which is especially helpful if your people have a mythology that has been suppressed and only survives in fragments), it is one’s own local and ethnic tales which will appeal most to the soul and whose meaning can be best understood by the individual. In a way, the myths are themselves abstract constructions, but they are designed not to distort or obscure history; rather, their importance is more applicable to the present state of things than the past, which has passed into the well of memory and slips further away from us in time.

We will not find Truth in lies, nor lies in Truth. Objective Truth is beyond literal and metaphorical, it simply is. Our folk myths are precious and must be preserved, though it is only natural that once they come into regular, oral use, the descriptions and language will change over time, but the meanings will remain the same. Mythology is not simply a static collection of literary verses, but a living and growing body of lore which maintains and is maintained by a people through regular recitation and discourse. Those of us who enjoy reading regularly can find more books and other information about mythology than ever before on the internet, while others with more aural sensibilities can listen to recitations either in audio-book form or by seeking out storytellers active in their communities. Tradition helps us to continue our story, while modernity makes us forget it. We have precious little time to recover our heritage before we are tested to survive in the new world that is emerging…

About us

The Creed of Caledon is a Wotanist kindred based in Scotland. We seek to reforge the link to our ancestors that has been broken by Modernity through practising old and new traditions and by encouraging personal and spiritual growth.